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Nikon Auto Focus Nikkor lenses:-
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Nikkor lenses:- Fisheye-Nikkor Lenses - Circular | Full Frame |
Ultrawides Lenses - 13mm15mm18mm20mm | Wideangle Lenses - 24mm28mm35mm | Standard Lenses - 45mm 50mm 58mm | Telephoto
Lenses - 85mm105mm135mm180mm & 200mm | Super-Telephoto Lenses - 300mm 400mm 500mm 600mm 800mm 1200mm |
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Special
Application lenses: Micro-Nikkor Lenses - 50mm~55mm -60mm 85mm -105mm 200mm Micro-Zoom 70-180mm Perspective Control (PC) - 28mm 35mm PC-Micro 85mm Dedicated Lenses for Nikon F3AF: AF 80mm f/2.8 | AF 200mm f/3.5 EDIF Depth of Field Control (DC): 105mm 135mm Medical Nikkor: 120mm 200mm Reflex-Nikkor Lenses - 500mm 1000mm 2000mm Others: Noct Nikkor | OP-Nikkor | UV Nikkor 55mm 105mm | Focusing Units | Bellows-Nikkor 105mm 135mm Nikon Series E Lenses: 28mm35mm50mm100mm135mm | E-Series Zoom lenses: 36~72mm75~150mm70~210mm |
MF Zoom-Nikkor Lenses: 25~50mm | 28~45mm | 28~50mm | 28~85mm | 35~70mm | 36~72mm E | 35~85mm | 35~105mm | 35~135mm | 35~200mm | 43~86mm | 50~135mm | 50~300mm | 70~210mm E | 75~150mm E | 80~200mm | 85~250mm | 100~300mm | 180~600mm | 200~400mm | 200~600mm | 360~1200mm | 1200~1700mm
Tele-Converters: TC-1 | TC-2 | TC-200 | TC-201 | TC-300 | TC-301 | TC-14 | TC-14A | TC-14B | TC-14C | TC-14E | TC-16 | TC-16A | TC-20E
Recommended links to understand more technical details
related to the Nikkor F-mount and production Serial Number:
http://www.zi.ku.dk/personal/lhhansen/photo/fmount.htm by: Hansen,
Lars Holst
http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/hardwares/nikonfmount/lens2.htm
http://www.photosynthesis.co.nz/nikon/serialno.html
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About this photographic site.
Exposure Control
F2SB & F2AS both allow users to enjoy certain form of converted automation with the attachment of EE Aperture Control Unit (DS-1 for F2SB & DS-12 for F2AS) attached on the all mechanical body of the F2. Shutter Priority is made possible that way. The F3 has its automation built in the body and aperture priority is opted instead of shutter priority where it doesn't need to modify the lens. Canon's F1n can use both (FD mount) but the LX is limited to aperture priority as with the F3.
As you may ask WHY I always used Canon's F1n & Pentax LX in so many instances to compare - as all these models were direct competition during the F3 era (In fact, I would love to put OM2 and Contax's RTS II into the list) - ALL these models are true classic cameras of modern times and they have their strength , revolutionary or proprietary technologies respectively, which I will feature them one by one in sections to follow)
Nikon has
the tradition (Good and bad) of always adopt "proven" technologies of others
into their camera design. The Olympus OM2n revolutionary real-time OTF (Metering
Off the Film Plane) metering was duplicated by the F3 (While out of the three, Canon
decided to go separate way in its design and thus remain as the sole model among
the four that doesn't provide TTL OTF flash metering). To avoid infringement of patent
that Olympus owned, both F3 and the later LX came with their respective solutions.
In comparison, F3's method is less sophisticated but more direct. TTL OTF is only
applied to flash metering - BOTH ambient and flash metering are handled by a SINGLE
silicon photo diode (SPD) cell that facing the shutter curtain at the bottom of the
mirror box.
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The orange line indicates the optical path from subject to viewfinder. While yellow lines indicate how the aperture direct readout is visible in the viewfinder. This design was modified/rearranged with the arrival of AF, where location of the bottom house the optical block (CCDs) for AF sensors. This illustration is also useful for beginners' knowledge of how optical path reaches from the lens to the viewfinder and how the ADR works in Nikon cameras, that is why I retouch and enlarge it here for your easy reference. |
The dimmed area at the center of the main reflex mirror (Silvered coated) are around 50,000 unsilvered "pinholes" to allow precisely 8% (F4 uses 30%!) of the light pass through to the secondary mirror and reflect the light source to the metering cell for exposure calculation.
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The cell will meter enough light reflected from the film plane when shutter curtain opened during permissible sync speed and within that fraction of second during a flash exposure to instruct the dedicated TTL Flash units to stop emitting power and thus a theoretical perfect flash exposure is formed. |
The viewfinder information is simple enough. A tiny rectangular LCD shown shutter speed selected (The speed is handled by a quartz oscillator, although it is stepless but only closest to standard values is shown, like 1/125, 1/250 etc - although the actual speed could be at variables like 1/98 or 1/235 etc..).
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ADR (Aperture Direct Readout - see illustration above), transferring user preselected aperture value from the lens aperture ring to the viewfinder. and picture shown here lacked a flash ready light - which will light up when used with dedicated flash units. |
The 12mm circle outline the area is where the F3's center weighted metering pattern concentrates - with the variation from Nikon's standard 60/40 distribution to a more condensed 80/20 combination (F4 goes back to 60/40 and the new F5 with 75/25 and also can custom change/fine-tune yourself). Personally, I am more used to this setting (In fact, I custom set my F5 to 80/20 instead of the factory preset of 75/25 combination on center weighted metering). At least, I know where am I metered at - with some room for other areas to be included in the calculation. But I would advise used it in combination with another control button: the exposure lock. It will train you to pay more attention in framing / re-composition of your subject of interest as well after you have metered what or where you intended.
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F3 doesn't have DX coding. You have to adjust manually. Pull and turn o adjust the right setting yourself. Film Speeds can be referred below - also can used as a alternate exposure compensation method for both manual and auto mode. BUT remember to adjust it back to your correct film speed after us |
Viewfinder displayed are virtually 100% - as with the F & F2. Canon & others (other than Contax RTS series) has been struggling to get the figures close (Canon F-1n closes the gap to 98% and not until the EOS 1 series managed to get the 100% viewfinder coverage - BUT at the expense of WITHOUT interchangeable viewfinders).
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This has much to do with the standard in manufacturing, precision and assembling various standard of parts. Although the figures revealed the high manufacturing standard Nikon has been maintaining to achieve the 100% frame coverage. The Nikon F & F2 has similar feature of 100% coverage of the picture field, both are mechanical cameras. |
To help you understand how
difficult it is to achieve and maintain that figure of 100%: The Nikon F2 body consists
of the die cast aluminum alloy shell, baseplate, mirror box, front cover, top plate,
bottom cover and camera back; With each of the total 1,506 component parts, design,
process, finish and assembled them into a camera. Tolerance and quality in manufacturing
has to be of exacting standard so as to maintain area like the 100% image field coverage,
all these are interlocking factors.
The F3, on the other hand, being a automatic camera with only a mechanical shutter
to operate, may not have such mechanical sophistication. But nevertheless, the accumulated
experience of the F & F2 does help to allow the designer to retain that feature.
Well, in term of practicality or in real life application, if your specific kind
of works does not required the 100% frame coverage, you ought to move backward a
little to provide some allowances (Since most commercial color labs will do the cropping
of your image during processing for color prints and the slide mounted will cover
portion of the transparencies. Nevertheless, the feature is still essential for some
photographers who requires precise output of the picture frame of 100% coverage.
Personally, I still think the feature is useful enough for my kind of work like duplication
and copying work (I have a advertising and printing arm as well).
The High Eye Point Finder
(DE-3) is by far the most popular. In actual fact, the Action finder, though more
bulkier in size, can even provide extended eye relief to around 1.5" - but also
came with a higher price for that convenience. High eye point means smaller magnification
of image in the viewfinder and thus, one can see the whole viewfinder image at slightly
away from the eyepiece (The DE-3 provides 1" eye relief at 0.75X magnification
while standard eye level finder, the DE-2 provides 0.8X with 50mm lens set at infinity)
- may be convenient for eyeglass wearer or someone, say shooting with a helmet. The
Action Finder (DA 2) was indispensable when working in a camera housing for underwater
photography or wearing a goggles. One weakness for the Nikon F3 Finder is still with
its waist level finder - which still yields a reverse image in the viewfinder. Canon's
finder is much more innovative, see here
for an illustration but the Pentax LX is the most innovative with the FB1 system finders.
The High-Eye-Point was not something new. The Nikon F, F2 and even Nikkormat has
that optical feature. But those days, like the eye level and Photomic finder already
offer image magnification of 0.8X (Same with the current DE-2) and providing 18mm
from the finder eyepiece to view the entire image field in the viewfinder.
